Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T13:33:02.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Guided electromagnetic waves for damage detection and localization in metallic plates: numerical and experimental results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2020

Jochen Moll*
Affiliation:
Goethe University of Frankfurt, Department of Physics, 60438Frankfurt, Germany
*
Author for correspondence: Jochen Moll, E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Electromagnetic waves in the microwave and millimeter-wave frequency range are used in non-destructive testing and structural health monitoring applications to detect material defects such as delaminations, cracks, or inclusions. This work presents a sensing concept based on guided electromagnetic waves (GEW), in which the waveguide forms a union with the structure to be inspected. Exploiting ultra-wideband signals a surface defect in the area under the waveguide can be detected and accurately localized. This paper presents numerical and experimental GEW results for a straight waveguide focusing on the detection of through holes and cracks with different orientation. It was found that the numerical model qualitatively replicates the experimental S-parameter measurements for holes of different diameters. A parametric numerical study indicates that the crack parameters such as its orientation and width has a significant influence on the interaction of the incident wave with the structural defect. On top, a numerical study is performed for complex-shaped rectangular waveguides including several waveguide bends. Besides a successful damage detection, the damage position can also be precisely determined with a maximum localization error of less than 3%.

Type
Research Paper
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Kharkovsky, S and Zoughi, R (2007) Microwave and millimeter wave nondestructive testing and evaluation – overview and recent advances. IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Magazine 10(2), 2638.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukasawa, R (2015) Terahertz imaging: widespread industrial application in non-destructive inspection and chemical analysis. IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology 5(6), 11211127.Google Scholar
Yang, R, He, Y and Zhang, H (2016) Progress and trends in nondestructive testing and evaluation for wind turbine composite blade. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 60, 12251250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Z, Haigh, A, Soutis, C, Gibson, A and Sloan, R (2017) Microwaves sensor for wind turbine blade inspection. Applied Composite Materials 24(2), 495512.10.1007/s10443-016-9545-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, A, Hu, B and Ramahi, O (2015) Intelligent detection of cracks in metallic surfaces using a waveguide sensor loaded with metamaterial elements. Sensors 15(5), 1140211416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Albishi, AM and Ramahi, OM (2017) Microwaves-based high sensitivity sensors for crack detection in metallic materials. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques 65(5), 18641872.10.1109/TMTT.2017.2673823CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moll, J, Arnold, P, Mälzer, M, Krozer, V, Pozdniakov, D, Salman, R, Rediske, S, Scholz, M, Friedmann, H and Nuber, A (2018) Radar-based structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades: the case of damage detection. Structural Health Monitoring 17(4), 815822.10.1177/1475921717721447CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, P, Moll, J, Mälzer, M, Krozer, V, Pozdniakov, D, Salman, R, Rediske, S, Scholz, M, Friedmann, H and Nuber, A (2018) Radar-based structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades: the case of damage localization. Wind Energy 21(8), 676680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moll, J, Simon, J, Mälzer, M, Krozer, V, Pozdniakov, D, Salman, R, Dürr, M, Feulner, M, Nuber, A and Friedmann, H (2018) Radar imaging system for in-service wind turbine blades inspections: initial results from a field installation at a 2MW wind turbine. Progress in Electromagnetic Research (PIER) 162, 5160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, C, Peng, Z, Huang, T-Y, Fan, T, Wang, F-K, Horng, T-S, Munoz-Ferreras, J-M, Gomez-Garcia, R, Ran, L and Lin, J (2017) A review on recent progress of portable short-range noncontact microwave radar systems. IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 115.Google Scholar
Szczepanik, R, Przysowa, R, Spychaa, J, Rokicki, E, Kazmierczak, K and Majewski, P (2012) Application of blade-tip sensors to blade-vibration monitoring in gas turbines. In Rasul M (ed). Thames Street London, UK: Headquarters IntechOpen Limited, pp. 14517610.5772/29550CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moll, J (2018) Damage detection and localization in metallic structures based on jointed electromagnetic waveguides: a proof-of-principle study. Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation 37(4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moll, J, Nguyen, D and Krozer, V (2020) A numerical study on tomographic imaging using guided electromagnetic waves. 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2020) (accepted in December 2019).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moll, J (2019) Numerical analysis of two-dimensional waveguide patches for surface damage detection. 12th German Microwave Conference, IEEE, pp. 146–149.10.23919/GEMIC.2019.8698193CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, B, Chen, W, Wu, Y, Ding, K and Li, R (2017) Review of 3D printed millimeter-wave and terahertz passive devices. International Journal of Antennas and Propagation 2017, 110.Google Scholar
Otter, WJ and Lucyszyn, S (2017) Hybrid 3D-printing technology for tunable thz applications. Proceedings of the IEEE 105(4), 756767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar